The continued evolution of office document machines, such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and scanners, has resulted in highly sophisticated and function-rich machines. Typical selectable functions, such as on a copier, include making darker or lighter copies, selecting a number of copies, selecting from a number of alternate paper sizes, selecting stapled copies, copying on one or both sides of a paper sheet from one or both sides of an original, and image reduction or enlargement. Substantial efforts have been devoted to the design and layout of such machines to enhance an operator's understanding and reduce the possibility of operator entry errors. In a distributed, network oriented document management system, such as including one or redistributed printers, scanners, facsimile devices, and the like, such complicated functions may be selected via a "window" on a standard personal computer screen. Regardless of the particular interface used to control one or more document machines, there is still a premium to be placed on avoiding operator confusion.
Efforts to avoid operator confusion and error generally concentrate on presenting or displaying to the operator only those function choices which are relevant in a particular context. Thus, a typical design of a user interface for a copier, for instance, would typically include a number of backlit of LCD-based features to be displayed; in general, by selectably lighting only the features desired to be selected from at a given time, a human user can be guided though a complicated selection process. When features are not available, such as stapling, a display for stapling is not lit. If selection of one feature is precluded by a previous selection of another feature, the precluded feature is not lit: for example, if a user selects the copies to be printed on transparencies, it would be desirable not to display a duplex option once transparencies are selected.
As office equipment becomes more and more a matter of interaction between networked peripherals, it is more common to have the users make their selections via a personal computer. It is common in personal computers, particularly with a graphical user interface such as known in the Apple.RTM. Macintosh.RTM. or Microsoft.RTM. Windows.TM. interfaces, to provide a "help" button somewhere on the screen at all times. The purpose of the help button is to enable the user to understand the function of a particular graphical icon. One well-known problem with "help buttons" in practice is that there is difficulty in allowing the user to isolate the precisely relevant portion of help information that is needed at a particular time. Very often, the text in a help file is written at such a general level as to be useless. When using any kind of help feature, it is most desirable to be able to provide only the most relevant help information given a particular situation, and to make this help information readily available when the information is likely to be needed.